[SPOILERS] Charriu and Zalson are fighting the honorable post count war!

[Charriu]

T75:

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International: I deceided to scout north with War Walpole. So far no borders from Coeurva, his city really must be on the desert hill. Also note that Schilda is now empty. Coeurva also revolted to buddhism this turn. Coeurva spread buddhism through his empire the last turns, so no wonder that he now converted. Back at Forza I finish the barracks next turn, which should give me a bit of a culture head start on Coeurva.

National: I'm starting to run out of money soon. Right now I'm on break even with 40%, but next turn I will found Galura, which brings up the maintenance again. I have to start working on getting my finance up. I'm also running 90% science for this turn, so that Iron Workings is done with 299/299. Otherwise I would have to spend another turn getting money and then finish it. Who knows it may be good to know where iron is before I settle Galura. My workers are spread around my empire and almost all of them finished their work, so that I can react to any iron resource pretty fast.

With the discovery of iron working I also have to choose another tech:

Go for religion: There are still religions to grab. This would require Mysticism-> Polytheism->maybe Monotheism
Money, money, money: I think the best way to get my empire in the greens in the near future would be with currency. I would tech this way Mathematics->Alphabet->Currency
Keep on the war path: This would mean either Mathematics->Construction or Metal Casting->Machinery. The later is almost out because of Coeurva grabbing the Oracle.

I'm tending towards the money path with Mathematics. This still leaves the option of Construction open, when I need it.

Graphs:




I expect that this graph will go up with the discovery of iron and the fact that I start unit production soon.



I'm a bit concerned with RFS power increasing, but me being a bit lower in power then him, could lead him to false conclusions. With the discovery of Iron Working my graph will improve next turn, which may give RFS a hint. Another reason why I have to start unit production an attack soon, while I still have the advantage.

[Charriu]

T76 Part 1:

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Iron Working is in. Let's see where all the iron is.



Well that's rather bad. Shallow will have immediate access to iron the moment he discovers Iron Working. At least that iron does not increase the hammers  in BeatriceB.



Iron in the no man's land between me and RFS, but more important there is iron near Lighthouse. If we only can take Lighthouse from RFS, it will be worth it.



More iron in the north and unfortunately there is iron near Schilda. The former city of Libyan also had an iron in it's BFC, that was a really nice city.



And most important there is iron near me. I expect that everybody has one source near him. Karlabos will pop borders next turn, so the iron will be in my culture. The best thing about this iron location is, that Karlabos and Siren can share it. I will adjust my micro plan and will finish my turn later.

[Zalson]

Math/Alpha/Currency seems like the best plan -- and adding some more cottages would be a good idea, I think. It is nice to see that we're doing so well on crop yield -- which will be translated into hammers and new cities via RFS-81.

What's the ETA to your plan: 10 turns?

[Charriu]

T76 Part 2:

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Behold our newest city Galura. I will stop founding more cities for now. The maintenance is just to high and I need more gold to finance my war against RFS. That's also why I deceided to go for Mathematics and then currency. I desperately need more gold.



Exploration to the north continued and discovered another resource for the former Libyan.

I also checked RFS trade and he has stone. That means he has masonry and can build walls.

[Cornflakes]

I've noticed that Alphabet has been a commonly-used route to currency rather than Mathematics. I haven't looked into it myself, but from what I remember the trade-off is boosted chops from Mathematics vs. cheaper cost of Alphabet + unlocks research building to speed along Currency. Have you considered this one way or the other? There may be more that I'm missing.

[Zalson]

You have have math to research currency. Alpha gives you a 20% bonus on research to currency and gives you the ability to build research (and in RTR, open borders) leading into currency, at which point you've probably built all the building you want prior to markets.

I think that's usually the idea behind math.

[Charriu]

That's good advise about Alphabet. I will login and change it.

[Commodore]

You have have math to research currency. Alpha gives you a 20% bonus on research to currency and gives you the ability to build research (and in RTR, open borders) leading into currency, at which point you've probably built all the building you want prior to markets.

I think that's usually the idea behind math.

I'm...pretty sure sure this isn't true . Alphabet->Currency works.

[Charriu]

Yes it works and Mathematics and Alphabet have the same cost. But researching Currency with building research could be the only way to get it in time.

[Zalson]

Yeah I was wrong! Thanks for the correction!